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Downtown homeowner in Sault Ste. Marie sounds off on garbage, drug activity in her neighbourhood (6 photos)

Retiree at her wits end with garbage-infested property, syringes in nearby laneway. Forces municipality to take action.

Audrey Crack walks down the laneway behind her Bruce Street home, pointing out all the garbage in the area. 

The retiree says it’s not uncommon to find discarded syringes and garbage along the laneway, or garbage strewn about the yard of one apartment building in particular that’s close by. She's even had syringes dumped in her backyard.  

“Some guy, I thought he was dead a couple weeks ago. I had to call the ambulance because he was laying all contorted on the back steps of his house,” said Crack, speaking with SooToday Friday. “And then this morning when I left for work, there was five crackheads walking around the building, looking at it and digging in their garbage.”

Crack points to the garbage-filled yard in the laneway, which has a civic address in the 200 block of Albert Street East. She refers to the building on that property as a “crackhouse” due to people going in and out of the building all hours of the day and night, adding that the address is pretty well known to police. 

She has to park her vehicle inside of her small, fenced-in backyard because of property crime in the area. 

“A couple of months ago, they smashed my window and broke into my car and stole everything,” she said. “It’s just an ongoing thing, and nobody cares.”

Crack says that she has called the City of Sault Ste. Marie a handful of times over the years about the problem property, but says those complaints have never been dealt with. 

She has even resorted to cleaning up the garbage on that property herself over the past month or so. But the garbage keeps reappearing. 

“There’s rats and there’s mice and there’s birds,” she said. “I mean, I’m paying top-dollar taxes...and I’ve got to put up with this garbage?” 

Crack says she went to the local media out of frustration after contacting the City of Sault Ste. Marie again this past week. 

“I don’t know if the media can help me just get it out there, because I’m at my wit’s end right now,” she said. 

The City of Sault Ste. Marie informed SooToday that it’s following up on Crack’s complaint about the Albert Street East property.  

“An Order to Comply was sent out and the follow-up for compliance is on July 30,” said Freddie Pozzebon, chief building official for the City of Sault Ste. Marie in an email to SooToday Friday. “If the yard is not cleaned, then we will send in a contractor.”

Sault Ste. Marie Police Service announced the launch of the Integrated Municipal Enforcement Team (IMET) in September 2020. The multi-agency effort has police working with fire services, the housing commission and the city’s building and by-law departments to crack down on decrepit buildings and derelict properties that are deemed unsafe for tenants and neighbours, and may be conducive to criminal activity. 

“All these issues come to a head where we thought we need a good partnership, and the city agencies - fire, building and bylaw and the housing commission - have been incredibly motivating and great partners, and saying, let’s do this together, let’s make sure this city is safe,” said Sault Ste. Marie Police Service Chief Hugh Stevenson, speaking with SooToday last year. “Let’s hold landlords accountable for their property, and when I say that, I mean accountable in terms of proper electrical standards, proper fire protective approaches, building inspector issues.”

Three properties have been investigated as of November of last year. SooToday asked the police service for an update on IMET investigations Thursday, and is currently awaiting a response. 

Meanwhile, Crack says the property that’s been causing her headaches is part of a larger problem with owners of derelict properties and buildings in the Sault. 

“They’ll get their cash for rent, and they don’t care what the building looks like,” she said.


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James Hopkin

About the Author: James Hopkin

James Hopkin is a reporter for SooToday in Sault Ste. Marie
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